Inhuman Swill tag:www.shunn.net,2010:/blog//11 2010-08-13T21:24:03Z A record of observaShunns Movable Type Pro 4.34-en Novelophobia tag:www.shunn.net,2010:/blog//11.5439 2010-08-12T17:14:00Z 2010-08-13T21:24:03Z http://shunn.livejournal.com/513211.html William Shunn http://www.shunn.net The Revivalist was a huge, sprawling, shambolic, undisciplined thug of a novel, but it wasn't entirely bad. I never sold that book, but I also never did the subsequent work that was necessary to turn it into something saleable. Clearly I didn't have a problem writing. What I had a problem with in the years that followed was getting off my ass and committing to doing the work. Don't get me wrong. I did a lot of work in those years. I wrote a 250,000-word memoir, which through subsequent drafts I revised down to nearly half that size. I wrote and sold a bunch of short stories and a couple of novellas, but my one or two longer projects ran out of gas. I kept psyching myself out with the idea that I didn't know how to write a novel, and for the most part I kept that fear to myself. My wonderful wife Laura forced my hand, though, by moving us to Chicago where I could be an almost full-time writer. I'd had an idea in my head for some time for a science-fiction novel about a kid who develops apparently magical powers, and one day I forced myself to just start writing it, without having worked out all the details of the world or everything that would happen along the way—things I usually like to have done before starting something. Laura's inhumanly patient encouragement and forbearance kept me going, as did a wealth of encouragement from friends and fellow writers, many of whom were setting a great example for me simply by sitting down in their chairs and writing and selling novels and expecting me to do the same. I'm a little stunned, but on Tuesday night I typed END OF BOOK ONE at the bottom of page 805 of my novel manuscript. Endgame, in its current 175,000-word state, is a huge, sprawling, shambolic, undisciplined thug of a novel, but I have enough confidence now to believe that I can whip it into shape. Along the way, I've finally debunked that crazy idea or fear I've had that the short story is my natural length. I can see it a little more dispassionately now for the nonsense it is. Every short story I write comes out twice as long as I expected or intended it to be. Every book I've tried to write has emerged a behemoth. My natural length is the natural length of whatever story I set out to tell, times two. I don't have to worry about not being able to write enough. I have to worry about writing too much. I think for my next novel, which I miraculously am already itching to get started on, I'm going to cook up only enough plot for a 40,000-word novel. Then I won't be so troubled when it weighs in at 80,000 words. The biggest fear I have now is that I'm never going to want to write another short story.]]> Reading on video tag:www.shunn.net,2010:/blog//11.5440 2010-07-28T10:44:00Z 2010-08-13T21:24:03Z http://shunn.livejournal.com/512967.html William Shunn http://www.shunn.net Essay Fiesta have posted video of the memoir excerpt I read for them at the Book Cellar on April 19th. This is a segment from The Accidental Terrorist called "Gluttons for Punishment": (Damn, that was over my time limit. Thank God I didn't exceed the YouTube limit of ten minutes.) Essay Fiesta is a monthly reading series that benefits the Howard Brown Health Center, hosted by Keith Ecker and Alyson Lyon. Please come out to the Book Cellar in Chicago on the third Monday of every month to support the series.]]> Difficult Times Francis tag:www.shunn.net,2010:/blog//11.5424 2010-06-16T17:45:00Z 2010-08-13T20:35:41Z http://shunn.livejournal.com/512701.html William Shunn http://www.shunn.net CD Mix of the Month Club compatriot Francis Heaney, who made his Sunday crossword puzzle debut in the New York Times this past, er, Sunday. Way to go, Francis! Now if only I were a subscriber so I could test my mettle against Francis's by-all-reports-monstrous puzzle.]]> Friday Wiscon reading tag:www.shunn.net,2010:/blog//11.5425 2010-06-06T16:07:00Z 2010-08-13T20:35:41Z http://shunn.livejournal.com/512504.html William Shunn http://www.shunn.net Wiscon tomorrow afternoon, I'll be part of a terrific group reading at 4:00 pm in Conference 2. The participants include Carrie L. Ferguson, Nicole Lorenz, Chibi-Evil and me. Here's the program description:
Disappearing Acts Reading | Conference 2 | Friday, 4:00–5:15 pm Come on in, sit down and get comfortable—we're only going to erase certain important things from the world. You don't need those stars, do you? Oh—you'll miss the words, surely, but we'll read that one last. Trust us. We're only ending the world here.
I was originally planning to read from Cast a Cold Eye, but given the theme it might be more appropriate to read a bit from my in-progress-but-nearly-done novel Endgame. This will be the first group reading of the whole convention, so please come over to Conference 2 and help us make it a success. Looking forward to seeing you there!]]> Phosphors, sweet phosphors tag:www.shunn.net,2010:/blog//11.5426 2010-05-27T11:57:00Z 2010-08-13T20:35:41Z http://shunn.livejournal.com/512237.html William Shunn http://www.shunn.net need that feature so much...]]> Hungry bear tag:www.shunn.net,2010:/blog//11.5382 2010-04-29T16:47:00Z 2010-04-29T18:42:11Z http://shunn.livejournal.com/511769.html William Shunn http://www.shunn.net Where's mine? [sung to the tune of "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath] She's my hungry bear She's the little dog with the golden hair She'll just sit and stare Anytime I'm eating and I won't share Nobody feeds her She just stands there and pouts (do do do-do-do do-do-do do-do-do) She's gonna starve soon Of this she has no doubts (do do do-do-do do-do-do do-do-do) Hey there, hungry bear Your bowl's full of pheasant and ground-up hare Ain't no cheese on there So you walk out with your nose in the air]]> E-blast from the past tag:www.shunn.net,2010:/blog//11.5381 2010-04-19T15:24:00Z 2010-04-19T17:15:05Z http://shunn.livejournal.com/511535.html William Shunn http://www.shunn.net 114th running of the Boston Marathon. I am reminded of this because I've started receiving race alerts via text message for a runner named Jen Stronge. So has Laura. I wish Jen Stronge all the luck in the world in finishing strong in the marathon this morning. But I never signed up to get her alerts, and I wish they would stop. My guess is that she has the same chip number that Laura had last year, and the fine IT staff of the Boston Marathon never cleared out the alert requests from last year's race. Which makes them, for today anyway, some of the dumbest fucks in the tech industry. To repeat, Boston Marathon IT crew—you suck. UPDATE: It's the bib number that's the same as Laura's from last year—18649. A dumb, dumb programming mistake, friends. And who's paying for all those bad text messages?]]> Reading at Essay Fiesta, Monday, April 19, 7 pm tag:www.shunn.net,2010:/blog//11.5380 2010-04-15T13:16:00Z 2010-04-15T15:42:06Z http://shunn.livejournal.com/511238.html William Shunn http://www.shunn.net Book Cellar in Lincoln Square this Monday, April 19, for the monthly Essay Fiesta reading series! I'll be reading a humorous personal essay in company with Cameron Esposito, Jim Pickett, Bryan Bowden, and Rebecca Rine-Stone. It's all to benefit the Howard Brown Health Center, so come on down, have a laugh, and join the raffle or make a small donation. It all takes place:
Monday, April 19th, 7:00-8:30 pm @ The Book Cellar 4736 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL 60625
For more info, click here. Hope to see you there!]]> Trivia benefit for the puppies tag:www.shunn.net,2010:/blog//11.5378 2010-04-10T13:20:00Z 2010-04-14T21:41:13Z http://shunn.livejournal.com/510943.html William Shunn http://www.shunn.net Laura's off to Florida through Tuesday for work, and I'm going to do get as much writing done as I can. The only breaks will be for taking care of Ella (who went to the groomer yesterday and now looks like a Muppet) and a special team-trivia competition this afternoon to benefit One Tail at a Time, a local dog shelter. One Tail's Medical and Finance Coordinator, Jeff Kitchen, is also the quizmaster at our regular Wednesday night pub trivia event. If you're in Chicago and have some free time this afternoon, come on down! The event kicks off at 2 pm this afternoon at KINCADE'S BAR & GRILL, 950 W. Armitage, right at the Brown Line stop. (The event has moved since the blog post above, so don't go to Kendall's.) I'm not sure whether or not there's room for more teams, but if so it's a $100 entry fee for your team of up to 5 people. You can add a sixth team member for another $20. And if the roster is already full, have a beer and cheer. Do it for the puppies.]]> The wages of fear tag:www.shunn.net,2010:/blog//11.5375 2010-03-25T14:45:00Z 2010-03-25T16:42:06Z http://shunn.livejournal.com/510591.html William Shunn http://www.shunn.net *, as in these incidents (as reported in the New York Times) against House members who voted for the reform bill:
At least two Congressional district offices were vandalized and Representative Louise M. Slaughter, a senior Democrat from New York, received a phone message threatening sniper attacks against lawmakers and their families. Ms. Slaughter also reported that a brick was thrown through a window of her office in Niagara Falls, and Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat of Arizona, said Monday that her Tucson office was vandalized after the vote. The Associated Press reported that the authorities in Virginia were investigating a cut propane line to an outdoor grill at the home of a brother of Representative Tom Perriello of Virginia, after the address was mistakenly listed on a Tea Party Web site as the residence of the congressman. Representative Bart Stupak, Democrat of Michigan and a central figure in the measure's abortion provisions, reported receiving threatening phone calls. Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the highest-ranking black lawmaker in the House, said he received an anonymous fax showing the image of a noose.... The reports of threats, coming after a tense weekend when protesters hurled racial and homophobic slurs at Democrats and spit on one congressman, left many Democrats shaken.  [full article]
I don't imagine that most Republicans condone the behavior exhibited in these incidents. But the Republican Party is responsible for it. As I've said before, their constant hammering on the idea that Obama's health-care reform equals socialism was a campaign designed to bypass rational thought and strike directly at the fear centers of their constituents. America has such a collective misunderstanding of socialism that the word is heard as "communism" or even "nazism." Calling something socialism in America is akin to calling patriots to arms. And the GOP did this deliberately. So when John Boehner says that "violence and threats are unacceptable," I have a hard time taking him seriously. Without the constant patronizing GOP appeal to fear, there would likely not now be people so terrified that we're on the road to totalitarianism that they'd be faxing nooses to congresspeople. You reap what you sow, Mr. Boehner. You want the violence and the threats to stop? Then stop using the language of fear. Stop appealing to the lowest common denominator. Rely on rational argument to make your point. If your point is valid, that ought to be sufficient. If not, then you're only in politics for the power, and not for the people.
* Okay, so I'm giving the 19th century a bad rap for rhetorical reasons. In truth, of course, crap like lynchings never stopped in the 20th century, which was probably a worse era for crimes against humanity. And in 19th century America we had the amazing spectacle of Christians and atheists working together to strengthen the wall of separation between church and state. So in some ways the 19th century was a more progressive time in the U.S. than most of the 21st century so far. Just goes to show how far rhetoric won't take you.]]> Beware of dog tag:www.shunn.net,2010:/blog//11.5374 2010-03-18T19:41:00Z 2010-03-18T20:46:05Z http://shunn.livejournal.com/510303.html William Shunn http://www.shunn.net Earlier from the second-story deck I caught a glimpse of the gate slamming shut as Ella chased someone out of the yard. Her wild barking was what had summoned me. The thunk of something landing solidly on the wooden deck below brought me down the stairs to find a package for my wife, too big to fit through the mail slot. The gate latch was still vibrating at a high B or C. Why I love Malcolm Tucker tag:www.shunn.net,2010:/blog//11.5373 2010-03-17T13:46:00Z 2010-03-17T15:42:05Z http://shunn.livejournal.com/510047.html William Shunn http://www.shunn.net
I think most people know me as a fairly laid-back guy in person, never getting too exercised or losing my cool, even when someone's being a jerk to me. If that's your opinion, then you've never worked in an office with me. Seriously. Ask the good, long-suffering people at BenefitsCheckUp or Sesame Workshop. (Actually, don't ask the people at Sesame Workshop. Most of the folks I used to work with there got the ax even before I did.) If you talked to them, you'd find out that I could be a real bastard in the workplace. Some people at my last job were apparently afraid to talk to me when I thought they'd messed up, or at all. I made at least one producer at the Sesame Street website cry. Mind you, I'm not proud of this. No, wait, actually I am. Over the past week or so, I've watched the recent film In the Loop three times on DVD. Besides its scathing, cynical view of the political process that lubricated our way into Iraq, I can't get enough of Malcolm Tucker, the angry, profane press secretary who never encountered a functionary he couldn't intimidate or a problem he couldn't spin his way out of. I want to be Malcolm Tucker, or at least be that articulate when I'm enraged. Tucker, as played by Peter Capaldi, is also a character on the BBC comedy series The Thick of It. That's the source of the short video clip below (decidedly NSFW in its language), which pretty well sums up the Tucker philosophy. I think you'll agree, there's a little bit of Malcolm Tucker in all of us. Hey, look! There really is a tea towel with that embroidered on it: Tucker's law Fuckity bye.]]> U QT! tag:www.shunn.net,2010:/blog//11.5371 2010-03-15T13:46:00Z 2010-03-15T15:42:10Z http://shunn.livejournal.com/509838.html William Shunn http://www.shunn.net Scrabble-izer. Here's one of the sweetest I've seen, which just caught my eye:
If you were a Scrabble tile, you'd be a Z - one of a kind and worth more than everyone else
Or see it in Scrabble tiles.]]> Deception tag:www.shunn.net,2010:/blog//11.5370 2010-03-05T15:11:00Z 2010-03-05T19:48:41Z http://shunn.livejournal.com/509527.html William Shunn http://www.shunn.net Ladybug]]> Nice review tag:www.shunn.net,2010:/blog//11.5369 2010-03-05T14:55:00Z 2010-03-05T16:42:04Z http://shunn.livejournal.com/509322.html William Shunn http://www.shunn.net PS Publishing newsroom, here are excerpts from Peter Tennant's recent Black Static review of my collaboration with Derryl Murphy, Cast a Cold Eye:
This short novella does many things right. For starters, its setting is immaculately captured on the page, with a real sense of rural Nebraska in 1921 coming over thanks to a wealth of tiny details, such as the ins and outs of photography or a look inside the house of a wealthy widow. There's a strong emotional grounding too, for both Luke and the society in which he is placed, an aching sense of despair undercut with a feeling that perhaps the worst is past, so people can look to the future with hope, an optimism confirmed in its denouement. Characterisation is spot on, with no-one who can be considered either evil or a criminal, just ordinary men and woman with all the flaws and virtues that implies.... The supernatural side of the story is suitably understated, so that we believe but also take on board the possibility that the ghosts could only exist inside the hearts and minds of the people who see them. With a subtext suggesting that the spectral world is just another aspect of life, wishing us neither good nor evil, but just there, a case could be made for Luke as the 'I see ghosts' boy from Sixth Sense picked up, rather like a reverse Dorothy, and put down in rural Nebraska, but that might be stretching things. In any event, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it without reservation.
Order yourself a copy, without reservation, here.]]>